Eating your words on Pujols not being even an average baseball player this year. Your pathetic. A typical column by someone who’s never played at a competitive level.
Not sure who you are ranting at, but Pujols has not been an average baseball player this year. He hasn't been an average baseball player since he turned 36. He has an OPS+ of 86 this year, and negative WAR. He is hitting .227/.273/.416 on the year.
I have been a big Pujols fan. I saw him play in community college and marked him for greatness then. His prime was one of the all time baseball joys to watch. But the facts are what the facts are, and a dude yelling at clouds with bad grammar isn't going to change that.
Lovely piece as always Joe, its kind of remarkable how long Federer has lasted and he never struck me as a guy who would go out on top, he has too much self-belief, too much confidence to ever walk away when he had gas in the tank, he was always on a path to an end like this, where the results just drove home to him that it was the end, my guess he will have one more go at Wimbledon next year, might even skip the Tourneys beforehand and schedule his entire year around getting to Wimbledon as fresh as possible, that belief driving him to what he no doubt truly believes will be a stunning final victory and a walk into the sunset, but I fear a Rd 2 loss to someone ranked in the 40's and a sad lonely walk off the court not even hearing the cheers from the crowd saying goodbye
How fortunate we are to watch the 3 GOATS play for the last 15 years! One (the artist) is the best grass/indoor player of all time. One (the technician) is the greatest hard court player of all time. One (the Bull) is the greatest clay court player of all time. Their excellence and the contrast in their games has made this the Golden Age of men's tennis.
Of all of them, I enjoy watching Roger play the most. He has set the bar so high, that we feel sorry for him when he just made the final eight at the premier tournament in the world. Medvedev didn't. Rublev didn't. Roger should play for as long as he wants to. As Joe mentions, he is still one of the best players in the world. How many of us would quit our jobs if we were one of 10 best in the world in our endeavor?
With the Bull you have to include his mental strength, to have his game and for him to beat peak Federer on grass was an amazing achievement, you could even argue a better achievement that Novak beating post-peak Rafa on Clay. That epic Wimbledon final Rafa won over Federer was tennis at a level we will rarely see matched and poor Rafa is out there with completely the wrong game for the surface, none of the shots that make it seem so easy for Roger at times, but though sheer bloody mindedness and pure will he managed to beat the Grass Court champion and even managed to turn some of the Federer loving crowd onto his side just through it being impossible not to appreciate what you were seeing from this guy, truly remarkable
Djokovic will almost certainly finish with more majors than Federer (Nadal is less certain at this point, although no one would be surprised to see him grab at least one more French), but Federer in his prime is still the best tennis player I've ever seen.
I'm sure part is just the aesthetics of it. I've never had more fun watching tennis than when Federer was in top form; it felt like he could do literally everything and he made it all look simple. It was beautiful to watch. However, the fact that he's continued to play at an extremely high level into his late 30s is another notch in his belt.
I agree this is probably it, but winning 3 slams past the age of 35 (as many as had ever been won in tennis history) and then beating Rafa and going toe to toe with a 32 year old ND at the age of 38 only cements his GOATness. Period.
Oh, and many have said “this is it” for Federer since 2013. Imagine if he cared about what observers thought his level should be or looked like.
This was a fantastic article. And incredibly sad too. I wish Federer could be great forever, and that’s coming from a Nadal fan.
Eating your words on Pujols not being even an average baseball player this year. Your pathetic. A typical column by someone who’s never played at a competitive level.
Not sure who you are ranting at, but Pujols has not been an average baseball player this year. He hasn't been an average baseball player since he turned 36. He has an OPS+ of 86 this year, and negative WAR. He is hitting .227/.273/.416 on the year.
I have been a big Pujols fan. I saw him play in community college and marked him for greatness then. His prime was one of the all time baseball joys to watch. But the facts are what the facts are, and a dude yelling at clouds with bad grammar isn't going to change that.
Lovely piece as always Joe, its kind of remarkable how long Federer has lasted and he never struck me as a guy who would go out on top, he has too much self-belief, too much confidence to ever walk away when he had gas in the tank, he was always on a path to an end like this, where the results just drove home to him that it was the end, my guess he will have one more go at Wimbledon next year, might even skip the Tourneys beforehand and schedule his entire year around getting to Wimbledon as fresh as possible, that belief driving him to what he no doubt truly believes will be a stunning final victory and a walk into the sunset, but I fear a Rd 2 loss to someone ranked in the 40's and a sad lonely walk off the court not even hearing the cheers from the crowd saying goodbye
I do at least wish that Joe mentioned his countless stories about sports and time and Tiger Woods. We will always have the 2019 Masters.
How fortunate we are to watch the 3 GOATS play for the last 15 years! One (the artist) is the best grass/indoor player of all time. One (the technician) is the greatest hard court player of all time. One (the Bull) is the greatest clay court player of all time. Their excellence and the contrast in their games has made this the Golden Age of men's tennis.
Of all of them, I enjoy watching Roger play the most. He has set the bar so high, that we feel sorry for him when he just made the final eight at the premier tournament in the world. Medvedev didn't. Rublev didn't. Roger should play for as long as he wants to. As Joe mentions, he is still one of the best players in the world. How many of us would quit our jobs if we were one of 10 best in the world in our endeavor?
With the Bull you have to include his mental strength, to have his game and for him to beat peak Federer on grass was an amazing achievement, you could even argue a better achievement that Novak beating post-peak Rafa on Clay. That epic Wimbledon final Rafa won over Federer was tennis at a level we will rarely see matched and poor Rafa is out there with completely the wrong game for the surface, none of the shots that make it seem so easy for Roger at times, but though sheer bloody mindedness and pure will he managed to beat the Grass Court champion and even managed to turn some of the Federer loving crowd onto his side just through it being impossible not to appreciate what you were seeing from this guy, truly remarkable
Beautiful and poignant, Joe.
Djokovic will almost certainly finish with more majors than Federer (Nadal is less certain at this point, although no one would be surprised to see him grab at least one more French), but Federer in his prime is still the best tennis player I've ever seen.
I'm sure part is just the aesthetics of it. I've never had more fun watching tennis than when Federer was in top form; it felt like he could do literally everything and he made it all look simple. It was beautiful to watch. However, the fact that he's continued to play at an extremely high level into his late 30s is another notch in his belt.
I agree this is probably it, but winning 3 slams past the age of 35 (as many as had ever been won in tennis history) and then beating Rafa and going toe to toe with a 32 year old ND at the age of 38 only cements his GOATness. Period.
Oh, and many have said “this is it” for Federer since 2013. Imagine if he cared about what observers thought his level should be or looked like.